


november echo lima lima

by diashann



Category: Fear the Walking Dead (TV), The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-22 20:43:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11974650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/diashann/pseuds/diashann
Summary: Here lies Noelle Caroline CarterBorn August 26th, 1991A daughter, wife, & public figure in a world long lostForever in the wrong place, at the wrong time





	1. meet noelle & co.

Noelle **Carter** || amnesiac teen idol

 

Lt. **Thompson** || former guitarist in Noelle's band, enlisted as soon as the world went to shit

 

Capt. **Nuñez** || all around pain in the ass and try-hard, not the sharpest tool in the shed but thinks she is

 

Private **O'Brien** || loses his shit at the sight of the dead, probably sucks his thumb in his sleep

 

Capt. **Collins** || resident hard ass, the kind of person you want to be stuck with during the apocalypse 

 

Dr. Geraldo **Carter** MD || Noelle's adoptive father, always working on cures that most would say don't even exist


	2. a piece of before

_The California sun warmed her honey-kissed brown skin, her head tilted up to look at the building that towered over her. With each step she took the sun escaped her, her skin whining in protest at the absence of its rays. Big brown eyes took in the drab exterior of the rehabilitation center she'd been court ordered to reside in due to her alleged public display of drunkenness. In a way, she wasn't entirely sure what led her to stray to the devil's elixir. Alcohol had never been her friend, it scared her memories away even more than whatever mysterious brain disorder she was born with. In a lab, somewhere all alone and frantic, her father worked to perfect a cure for all that ailed her but a part of her knew that nothing would ever truly fix her. "Do you need me to go in with you?" A voice from behind her droned carelessly. She turned to find her assistant, clicking away at her phone for dear life. She rolled her eyes and turned back toward her new home. "No," She said before walking up the stairs and going inside. Whatever redemption this place held for her, it couldn't come soon enough._

_After a few weeks of making a home out of the barren gray walls that surrounded her, a subtle change had been introduced to her stuffy and boring routine. A new guy. He had messy brown shoulder length hair that looked like it needed a good washing, brooding dark eyes, and a crooked smile when he thought no one was looking. The group meetings were surely more interesting. Not because either of them spoke, but because the air was practically electric when they locked eyes. Breathing was harder, time felt like it stood still, and neither of them knew how to admit it. They actually avoided each other for as long as they could, until one faithful night._

_The hospital's night crew was a quite useless bunch; always leaving doors open, floors too wet, and carelessly abandoning their posts for middle of the night trysts with patients and fellow employees alike. Anyone with eyes would notice the mistakes they were making, or at least anyone who had been purposely hiding their daily medicines in the holes left behind after their wisdom teeth extractions._

_"What are you doing here?" She pulled her denim jacket closer to her delicate frame, the Cali night winds nipping at her bones, eyes wide and mouth a bit agape upon catching him so close behind her on the sidewalk. The two of them were wordlessly in awe of each other, standing a few yards up the road from their own personal hell. "Needed some fresh air," he said before shrugging. She didn't buy it, he was clearly following her. "Wanna hang out with me and some friends?" She asked after a long silence, tired of just blankly staring at him. He pretended to consider the offer before giving her a nod. The whole exchange left her feeling weary, especially after finding out why he was in the hospital from a fellow resident just the day prior._

_She started walking briskly, knowing he'd be following if he didn't want to be caught. After a few blocks, a blacked out lincoln navigator pulled up alongside them. He looked questioningly at her before she gestured for him to get into the backseat with her. "Nice ride," he said, hands smoothing across the leather interior. "Thanks," said a woman in the front seat. "What's on the agenda for the night?" The girl asked from the back seat, trying her best to smooth her almost completely unkempt blonde hair. The lady driver put the car back in motion, glancing back at her boss through the rear view mirror. She licked her lips before hesitantly answering with, "Facebook says there are three low-key events that you can swing by, tonight....if you-" before she could finish her sentence, the younger woman in the back seat was scoffing, visibly annoyed. "Tabitha, I don't pay Facebook to set up my events, I pay you. So just pick a place and I'll be there. Not because Facebook suggested it, but because you're my assistant and you've made the arrangements," she said, trying her best to keep her calm. Though she was annoyed, she learned very early on that she didn't want to be the type of person who barked orders at other people. She saw men like that all her life, ordering her father to do things and it made her sick. Tabitha was checking out the guy in the mirror, before turning her attention back to the road. "The Troubadour will be perfect, Kyle works there and he will have no trouble fitting us into a slot," she said, quickly typing out a text at a red light. "Thank you," she said, finding some snacks hidden in the pouch of the driver's seat. She handed some snacks to the guy beside her, not saying a word as they drove. He eyed her, wanting to say something but he knew he shouldn't. "You clean up pretty nicely," she said, turning her attention to him shortly after he had decided it would be best to just keep quiet. Her eyes scanned over him and she decided that the hospital scrubs didn't do him justice at all. When he didn't say anything, she continued with, "You dress like my grandpa..or at least how he used to."_  
  
_He couldn't help but laugh. "Thank you?"_

_"Is that a question?"_

_He shook his head a little, abandoning the oreo he was almost done eating. "No, it's just... I don't know how to take that, coming from you."_

_"What do you mean?" She asked, eyes searching his._  
  
_He looked away from her for a moment before turning his gaze back to her, "I know who you are, you know. My younger sister listens to you... has posters of you all over her room."_

_"Does she have my magazine covers, too? I quite like the Vogue one from 2008."_

_He just stared at her and she stared back, huge smiles on their faces._  
  
  
  
Then, she woke up. The air in her room hung heavily as she sat up in bed, sweat clinging to her for dear life. 


	3. fort benning

The smoke was filling the air just due west of their base. Noelle lowered her binoculars with a scowl, Nunez sitting idly beside her in the only watch tower they had ever been permitted to use. "We sent them weeks ago, maybe things got sour and they hauled ass," the female soldier said, to the mute girl with the slightly enraged expression, in a way that seemed much more like a query than a hypothesis. Noelle examined the woman's face carefully before shaking her head and Nunez wondered why she'd even said a word to begin with; they both knew what had happened to their men. "We have to tell your father," said the woman with the long wavy black tresses, before standing cautiously, as she tried to assess the emotions that plagued the face of the army brat before her.  
   
Noelle hadn't spoken a single word since she went out on a mission and got herself nabbed by some crazy biker dudes. She managed to escape and find her way back to them but, Nunez was starting to wonder if the girl had gone mad. After another few moments of what had long ago become an uncomfortable silence, the younger of the two came to a stand and nodded a singular time to her sometimes bodyguard before crossing in front of her to descend from the tower. Upon entering the underground level of the fort, where they'd been bunkered down since the epidemic began, the two women turned a main corridor and almost ran smack into Liutenant Thompson. "Ms. Carter, Captain Nunez," he said rather formally and, in that moment, Noelle wondered what exactly it was that had kept this man frozen in time. Surely, he'd seen death a million times over but this was different; this was the lack thereof, and yet somehow, Thompson was still Thompson. Noelle didn't know who she was anymore. If she ever truly did.  
   
Somewhere between her inner musings she'd missed the two soldiers' entire exchange. She blinked slowly and watched as Nunez saluted her superior and felt a pang of sickness. Sooner or later the bubble of denial, in which they all lived, would be popped and she quietly came to the realization that she didn't want to be anywhere nearby when it happened. "Do you think your father will be upset if we interrupt him?" Nunez spoke aloud but at that point it was more to herself than to the young woman beside her. Noelle shrugged noncommittally as they turned down a few more corridors, each one a darker and depressed shade of gray as they went. They reached the elevator that would take them down to Dr. Geraldo Carter's laboratory, the spray-painted insignia on the door seeming more daunting that usual. Nunez slid her clearance card and a hazy-eyed Noelle looked onward thinking back to a time when said insignia was all she'd hoped and prayed to see. Her mind wandered back to her brief week out there in the thick of it, the wilderness and undead being her only solace when faced with those who'd wish to harm her. It was a fairly short ride down but she could do little to stop the path her mind was set upon and only the sound of an annoyed Nunez could break her from her stupor. "Hey, space cadet!" Noelle blinked rapidly, processing that she was being spoken to, "It's time to get out of the elevator now."  
   
Looking past the Hispanic woman before her, Noelle made a beeline for her father who hadn't even so much as noticed their presence yet. "Doctor Carter," Nunez nearly shouted before Noelle could reach the mess of salt and pepper colored hair that was almost level with a microscope. "Ladies," He responded, his smile being heard well before it could actually be seen. He looked up just in time to receive a much welcomed hug from his daughter. "We have a problem," Nunez blurted, interrupting what was sure to be a touching father-daughter reunion. Dr. Carter locked himself away for days on end, rarely ever seeing anyone; least of all, his daughter, who'd long ago been deemed a distraction by a superior who was probably rotting somewhere in a forgotten corner of the world. When she went missing, it probably pleased the rotting leader to no end. Noelle stared at her father, a strand of her wavy dark brown hair hanging in her peripheral to effectively block Nunez from sight. She was successfully gauging the reaction of the man before her, gulping only slightly upon watching his features harden at just the tone of the soldier's voice.   
   
"How did this happen?" He droned in awe, now somewhat comfortably seated at his desk, hands weaving through those locks of his. Nunez had spilled the beans of all they'd observed from all along the watch tower, Noelle as tight-lipped as ever. "I suggest we send in a reconnaissance team, Doc." The hesitant soldier said, carefully avoiding any line of questioning; she didn't have any answers for him. Noelle's eyes widened at the suggestion that was left wide open on the table. Nunez wanted them to send MORE men? "You expect me to send more men to this...Terminus? After it just went up in flames?" He asked rhetorically.

  
"With all due respect," Nunez started, only to be interrupted. 

  
"--With all due respect is what someone says right before they say something blatantly disrespectful. So, with all due respect, this isn't war. For if it were, we'd be losing, Nina." Doctor Carter huffed exasperatedly before straightening his white lab coat, eyes roaming to examine the oft forgotten third person in the room. Somehow, Noelle, as per usual, managed to be quiet as a church mouse while still conveying the loudest and clearest thoughts. "You're excused, Nunez. I'd like a moment with my daughter." He spoke but his eyes didn't meet her. The soldier almost objected, feeling there was so much more to discuss. After a moment of hesitation, he looked at her and raised an eyebrow in silent query. Nunez bit her lip, saluted the good doctor, and then vacated the lab.

After a long pause, his words came crashing down on her like raindrops on a tin roof, "Do you think I was too hard on her?"

  
"No," Noelle shot back, immediately hating the way her voice sounded due to misuse. It had been three weeks since she'd seen her father; three weeks since she'd spoken to him and he was just about the only person left who was worth speaking to, in her opinion. "You were right, this isn't a war, it's an extermination."

"Why the long face, then?" He instantly inquired, the worry line on his forehead more visible than ever.

  
Noelle stiffened only slightly but it wasn't because of his question, it was because she wasn't quite sure of how to answer it. "First, all of that stuff with _them_ and now... Terminus went up in flames, three of our strongest men along with it. It's just.. I feel like everything is falling apart. Nothing is sacred anymore."

  
"Was it ever?" His tone was different but his expression hadn't changed. Noelle frowned up a bit and then pondered his words, proceeding as carefully as possible when she answered with, "The scary part is, I hardly remember." His eyes changed now, they widened, "And I told you that's normal considering everything that happened. It's a slow process, your brain is trying to recover what it essentially wasn't present for. All those years, when you were blacked out, your mind was on--"

  
"Autopilot, I know. I'm just done waiting for the day I wake up and remember everything. Living your life with jigsaw piece memories is no way to live," She said anxiously as she folded her arms, shifting her weight from foot to foot. "Have the dreams stopped?" He asked quietly, voice only a few octaves above a whisper.

  
Noelle almost didn't answer him, going around his desk, half in an attempt to make out what he'd been working on and half in attempt to hold off on talking about the problems in her head, "No, but they've been vague for months now."  
"Noelle.." There was that tone again. "No, Dad. Don't start. I'm not asking for anything now just like I never asked for anything in the past."

  
"No, but I see you suffering," Dr. Carter took a step in her direction, hoping to console her and when she didn't turn away he continued, "just like before." Noelle scoffed, flinching only mildly when he rested his life saving hands onto her upper arms, "And look where it got us last time, you trying to end my suffering."

  
"Parents are supposed to fight for their children." When he said it, he saw the subtle change in her demeanor and in her eyes, he wished he could take those words and shove them back down his throat. Her mother hadn't fought for her and he was too busy on base to fight for her. That's partly why he felt so badly when she fell ill at such a young age,  no one had been there for her. When you adopted a child, it was a completely different brew from making a kid that was all your own. He blindly reached into a bag and hoped for a child with all the good qualities that he'd been given, prayed for it to have good health. His hopes an prayers had not been enough.


	4. save yourself

"How are you holding up?" Thompson asked, making her flinch. He'd caught her off guard, walking up to her in the mess hall where she mostly sat alone and wrote songs that no one would ever hear. She took one of her open notebooks and wrote on it, looking up at him every now and again. She held it up to him and written on it was, "I'm fine." He rolled his eyes and sat across from her, a few of the lower ranking soldiers watching their entire exchange. "I've known you for how long? I was your number one fan before you even charted on any billboards.... you can talk to me, Noelle." He moved his fork around in whatever slop the kitchen had prepared for lunch, eyelashes fluttering. She furrowed her brow as she looked at him, taking her notebook and scribbling something else. "Not here," the lined page spoke when his eyes met with it. Before he could protest or say anything else, she was gathering her belonging into her backpack and hauling ass for their private meeting spot. 

He watched her retreating form. After a few moments of scarfing down the atrocious meal that was passing itself as food, his eyes scanned the room to make sure no one was overly interested in his departure.

"Took you long enough," her scratchy voice filtered through the gun range, her head turning only slightly as he entered the room. "Some of us actually eat, you know," he said in a playful yet accusatory tone. He came to stand next to her in one of the shooting booths. "Speaking of...I noticed you haven't been doing much of anything since you got back, let alone eating." She stiffened a bit at his words, her eyes cautiously finding him. "I can't..." she turned her eyes back to where someone had left their shooting target hanging, bullet holes peppering all over the sheet of paper. "At least, not yet."

He sighed, running a hand through his quickly growing dark brown hair. "Are you going to at least tell me what happened to you out there?"

"I've only told my father... you being the highest ranking officer, he should have already told you," her eyebrows knitted together in confusion, her body turning to face him more directly. "He told me about the group you encountered but... he didn't give me any details."

Her eyes widened a little. How could her father be so reckless? The troops needed to know exactly what could show up on their front door, they needed to be prepared. "They're dangerous, Shawn." He looked her over and it didn't take a rocket scientist to see the fear displayed so clearly on her beautiful features. "But they didn't kill you..." She shook her head before he could say anything else, "No, but they did something much worse."  
  
  
++  
  
  
"Heard you're talking again," said a male voice from behind Noelle as she helped wash the dishes in the kitchen.  
  
She whipped out a small notebook from her apron and held it up over her shoulder. It read, "NOT TO YOU."

O'Brien chuckled as he sidled up beside her at the sink. As soon as he did, she moved away and stored some dry dishes in a rack at the far side of the room. "How long are you going to keep this up? I said I was sorry for-"

"FOR WHAT? Abandoning me out there?!"

He stood stock still, debating if he should try to plead with her any more than he had during the first weeks she had returned to them. "It was supposed to be a simple scavenging mission... all the others seemed to think you were ready for it." Her eyes were filled with anger, jaw clenched. "They weren't wrong about that. As far as I can see, their only mistake was sending me with a little pissant who can't tell the difference between his asshole and his mouth. Stay the fuck away from me, O'Brien," She said through clenched teeth. 

A million different expressions passed over his features as the silence hung between them. He finally settled on outrage. "Or what?" He asked, advancing on her. She didn't waver or cower the way he expected her to, eyes hard as she didn't even hesitate to retort with, "Or I'll kill you." He stopped in his tracks, looking down at her with a look of surprise. He fixed his mouth to say something but it wasn't his voice that filtered into being. "Get out of here, Private. Head to your bunk before you say something you can't take back," called a deep and unwavering male voice from the other side of the kitchen. Both sets of eyes moved over to see Collins standing by the east entrance of the kitchen, arms folded and face showing little to no emotion. While O'Brien stared at the other man, seemingly weighing his options, Noelle's eyes were trained back to him. She was preparing to fight if she had to, but in the end the curly-headed male scoffed and left the kitchen in the blink of an eye. He bumped her on the way out, classy as ever.

"You okay?" Collins asked, almost hesitantly.

The frail blonde nodded in response.

"I can.." she cleared her throat after hearing her voice crack, "I can finish up in here, if you want."

Collins sighed and stepped closer to her, closing the distance between them almost completely. "You can go get some rest, I've got this. And I'll keep an eye on that little..."  
  
"What exactly did he say happened, in his report?" She spoke up, the thought springing to her mind and it didn't even occur to her that she was cutting him off when she spoke. She just needed to know. 

He looked down at her, face displaying signs of unease. "I can't tell you. But if you want to read it for yourself, talk to Thompson."  
  
"Thank you, Derek."  
  
He nodded in response, the whisper of a smile on his lips. "Any time, kid."  
  
Noelle removed her apron and headed out in search of answers.  
  
  
++  
  
"I can't stand it when you're like this..." cried a female voice from outside of Thompson's private quarters.

Noelle stopped short, wondering what the hell she was walking into.  
  
"It's only the second time this has happened. I'm sorry, I can't help it if I have other things on my mind, Nina."

Out in the hallway, Noelle's eyes widened a fraction. Had this always been a thing? Was she just not paying attention? Nunez and Thompson were messing around?

"I see how you are with her, you're a totally different person whenever she's around. These past few weeks have been sheer hell, Shawn." Nunez said, yanking her tank top back on.

Thompson sat on his bed, looking absolutely defeated. "I can't just be happy that my best friend is okay? For weeks, I had to listen to non-stop talk about all the gruesome ways she could've died out there."

"You don't think I was worried about her, too? Relieved when she came back?"

He scoffed and shook his head. "Not from where I'm sitting, no..."

She turned her back to him, arms folded. "I can't believe you think so little of me.."

"You are the one who sent her out there with O'Brien, instead of me," he pointed out before running a hand over his face. "This petty jealousy needs to stop... you could've gotten her killed."

"Right...because none of this would've happened if you were out there with her," she turned to face him again, voice laced with venom.

He stood up. "You're damn right."

Noelle's eyes were wide and had become that way at some point during the lovers quarrel she found herself eavesdropping in on. Every second prior to that very moment, she commanded herself to run away as fast as she could but she was glued to that spot. However, now that things seemed to die down, she knew she couldn't be caught in that corridor. Her feet started listening to her brain again, and just as Nunez was gathering her things to leave Thompson's quarters, her feet took off. 

She didn't even know where she was going until she got there. Staring up at the ladder to the watch tower, she reached out and grabbed a bar. On her ascent, her mind raced and she wished that she could take it all back, decide to never go on that scavenge with O'Brien. Upon reaching the top of the ladder, she slammed open the trap door to the tower. 

As the air filled her lungs, she gasped in relief, situating herself completely inside of her secret hideaway. She let the calm overtake her, the delicate noises of nature bringing her down from her panic attack. That is, until she heard the revving of motor cycles drawing nearer and nearer. She gulped and peeked up over the edge of the watch tower, her eyes not so welcoming of the sight.

It was _them_. They'd found her.

"The saviors," she said, voice low and shaky.


	5. serum

Noelle knew they wouldn't storm the fort, not right away, they'd wait it out. They had no idea how many were on the inside, they had no clue what weaponry she and her group had a hold on. After a few minutes of watching them, she slid away toward the trap door, finding her way back inside and securing the latch. Her breathing was labored at the sight of Negan's men, holding onto the ladder for dear life. Out of all the moments in her life that she could barely remember, she wished like hell that her time with The Saviors was one of them.

She gathered herself and slid down the ladder, going in search of the others. She found them in the mess hall, all congregating about how to go about finding her. "Maybe she's in the gun range or.." Thompson was speaking to the others when the sight of her, in his peripheral, cut him off in the middle of his sentence. "Holy shit, Noelle. Where the fuck..."

  
"Whatever this is, we don't have time for it," She said, folding her arms as she stood before them. Nunez broke through the horde of men, her eyes focused on the girl in front of her. "Noelle.." Before Nunez could finish speaking, she held up her hand. "We're about to be ambushed. We have very little time to make this right."

Collins stood up from one of the lunch tables, brows fused in confusion. "What do you mean... we're being ambushed?"

"We can't talk right now, we have to discuss this with my father. So unless your ranking us below Captain, I suggest you follow me." They all exchanged doubtful glances. "Now," she said pointedly before making her way towards the entrance of the lower level where her father's lab was situated. After a few moments, they followed her, a disgruntled O'Brien sitting on a lunch table and chewing on a toothpick.

Noelle waited for them at the elevator, her fingers smoothing over the spray-painted insignia. She dropped her hand and fought to keep herself calm. It didn't take long for both Captains and the Lieutenant to catch up with her. "After a few moments of this, it's come to my attention that you're actually serious," She ignored Nunez and pressed the down button, ready to get this whole thing over with. She was on the verge of falling apart at the seams. When the elevator arrived, she stepped in and expected them to follow suit. They did, slightly horrified looks starting to creep onto their faces. They couldn't arrive to the lab soon enough and when those doors finally opened again, the came face to face with a smiling Dr. Carter.

"I'm glad you all are here. I've finally done it... I've perfected it," He said, turning to them and holding up a beaker. Messing around with stuff like this was well beyond her father's paygrade and that was probably why she thought he'd never figure it out. It had been roughly five-hundred and twelve days since outbreak and her father's team of scientists and specialists had been working on what he'd just accomplished for much longer than that. Better late than never, she supposed. He took in the look on all of their faces, his own expression slowly fading away. His eyes flickered between each of them a moment longer before setting the beaker aside. "What's happened?"

Collins, Thompson, and Nunez looked to Noelle and she stepped closer to her father. "They found me...and we don't have much time." He looked at her, brow creasing. He visibly gulped before he shrugged off his lab coat, placing it on his office chair. He moved over to her, placing his hands on her shoulders, "What do we have to do?" Noelle exhaled sharply, squeezing her eyes shut. She knew exactly what they had to do but never in a million years did she think she'd have to give the orders. But she knew why, it was because she had spent weeks with those men... those people. She knew how they did things, how they thought. 

"We have to set up a way to destroy all the weapons we don't need. They can't get their hands on any of it so we have to rig it to explode," Noelle turned away from her father, eyes meeting with the soldiers in the room. She gave them a weak smile, silently thanking them for not having an outburst. She could tell they weren't too happy but they were trying their best to cooperate. "They don't know how many men we have, they don't know what artillery we're packing, so they will wait us out. When he sent his tracker out to find me, they didn't know where they'd find me. This is probably the best and worst scenario they could have even imagined."

"How so?" Thompson asked.

"It's the worst case because it's a fort and it'll be difficult to take it without having all the variables. It's best case from their perspective though, because if they do manage to take the fort, they will inherit our weaponry," She looked at him, a bit baffled, assuming it was obvious. Thompson ran a hand through his hair the way that he always did, clutching at his locks, a sure indication of stress. Nunez and Collins were looking at each other, eyes wide. "We don't have much time, Dad," Noelle said, turning back to the man behind her. "Pack up everything you need, everything valuable...the sooner we set this in motion, the sooner we can be in the wind."

"What exactly did these people do to you?" Nunez blurted. Thompson's eyes went wide as Noelle turned to look at them. She shot an angry glance in his direction before bringing her full attention to the eldest woman in the room. "You really want to know?" She asked through clenched teeth, "With them at our front door, threatening our lives, you sure that's the question you want an answer to?"  
  
Nunez looked at the others, gulping before she responded with, "Yeah. I really want to know the kind of people we're up against."

"Nina.." Thompson started, a bit aggravated.

Noelle stepped towards them, "No, it's okay, Shawn." She ran her hands down her face, bracing herself for re-living her time with The Saviors. "Their leader...Negan...he has this fixation with marrying himself to single women, in an attempt to have as many children as he possibly can. Very Genghis Khan, this one."

Everyone was silent.

"Oh, don't worry, he didn't touch me. He likes to make his wives feel like they have a choice. I didn't choose that, hell I wouldn't even verbally communicate with him. I knew that the only way you guys would be safe was if I kept my mouth shut. He didn't like that, though. He knew who I was, in the world before and that made him want to break me even more."

Collins perked up with interest, "How'd you get out?"  
  
"I was just lucky. People not being at their post when they were supposed to be, doors open when they should've been closed," She said, eyes going back and forth, thinking back to the night of her escape. "Or maybe he set me free, knowing I'd lead him to answers," She said, eyes alight with the realization.

Nunez scoffed, breaking Noelle out of her reverie. "So you led them here, and now you want us to help you clean up the mess?"

Rage ignited within her as she advanced on the hot-headed soldier. "Unless you want to end up one of his pretty little wives, then yeah. I'd like your help."  
  
"God, how could you be so stupid?!"  
  
"I'm not like you! I had no training, no idea how to cover my tracks. I honestly don't know what you wanted me to do," Noelle was exasperated, eyes hard. Nunez was silent. "Oh, wait... you would've preferred I stayed gone, right? So you wouldn't have a distracted boyfriend who is visibly in love with someone else."

Nunez went to lunge forward on impulse but Collins caught her by her shirt. "We don't have time for this. What part of 'we're about to be ambushed' isn't translating for you?" His voice was deep and gravelly, everyone looking to him with wide eyes, including Nunez. Dr. Carter cleared his throat and went to work with packing away everything in a metal briefcase from the government. "I need a moment alone with my daughter," he finally said to them after all the injection needles and vials were locked away securely. The three soldiers saluted and made their way into the elevator, Thompson locking eyes with Noelle before the doors closed. "We'll start making preparations," he said, eyes filled with something she couldn't quite put her finger on. She gave him a nod of understanding just before the elevator doors closed.

"Dad..."

"I've done it. What the scientists did before... it may not have worked completely but this will," he said, hands firmly pressing to the cool surface of the briefcase as it laid on one of his many tables. His eyes were closed and his head was hanging slightly.

"Dad...."

"No matter what happens, you have to promise me that you will take this every day, until it runs out. I've written down the dosage and that is inside this case, as well."

"Dad, what are you even-"

He finally looked up at her and, it was then that she could see how truly tired he was. It was the first time in a long time. "I want to say that I'm sorry for all of this," he sniffed, the sound making her eyes widen half a fraction. "Dad, it isn't your fault."

"Well, it damn sure isn't yours, either. You can't help how you were born," He snapped, and it almost scared her.

Her eyes darkened, it was the first time in a long time that she had actually let herself truly think about it. All of it. She exhaled sharply, her hand reaching out to take his. "I don't blame myself, if that's what you're worried about. I... I just think of my entire life as one mishap to another, always in the wrong place at the wrong time."

He looked down at his table again, at the sterile metal briefcase. His eyes were watery but he didn't want her to see.  
   
“What is in this briefcase is all that I need, but it’s for you. Take it and open it when you are somewhere safe…”

“We’ll open it together,” Noelle said, almost harshly because she was beginning to think that he was going to do something stupid. He stood up straight, wiped his eyes, and smiled at her. “You’re right,” He said, as softly as he could manage.

After a few moments of silence, her father avoiding her gaze while she couldn’t help but look at anything but him, she cleared her throat and said, “We should go help the others, they’ll need all the help they can get.”

He nodded a single time, eyes finally finding hers. “Let’s go,” he said, taking one last look around his office. He hesitated as they walked to the elevator doors. “Actually, I have a few last minute things to attend to, you go ahead. But leave the briefcase here. I’ll meet you in the mess hall within the hour to return it to you.” She eyed her father but decided not the press the matter. “Sure, okay…” she said, pressing the elevator button to take her upstairs. When the doors slid open, she got inside, watching him as he went to work on one of the many computers in his lab. Once the doors closed, she sighed, the adrenaline still coursing through her.

God only knew what was awaiting for her upstairs.


End file.
